SSE Gas Storage Awards Contract to SIMMONS EDECO

SIMMONS EDECO, supplier of wellhead and valve maintenance, asset integrity solutions and onshore drilling services to the global oil and gas industry, has announced that UK energy supplier SSE Hornsea Limited’s Gas Storage facilities has awarded the company a multi-million pound contract.

To ensure that SSE Hornsea’s Atwick and Aldbrough gas storage facilities continue to operate safely and efficiently, SIMMONS EDECO is to provide comprehensive asset integrity services. SIMMONS EDECO will not only provide and manage wellhead maintenance and valve integrity services, but wellhead panel maintenance services. In addition, SIMMONS EDECO is to supply additional third party services required by SSE to facilitate their well asset integrity maintenance schedule, as needed. To fulfil SSE’s requirement to obtain this diverse range of services from one contractor, SIMMONS EDECO entered into a strategic alliance with Specialised Management Services Ltd (SMS), which specialises in wellhead panel maintenance services.

Although the contract award represents the first time that SIMMONS EDECO will have delivered wellhead, valve and asset maintenance services at Aldbrough, the company has been providing similar services elsewhere for SSE. For the past 12 years, it has contributed to the successful maintenance of the Atwick facility, helping SSE to meet customer demand for gas throughout the region. While maintenance activities have been ongoing at Atwick, SIMMONS EDECO have already commenced work on the asset integrity programme for Aldbrough.

Mark Jessop, SSE Head of Projects (Gas Storage) states, “It was highly important to select a proven company that could deliver all necessary services for wellhead and ancillary systems integrity, whilst also ensuring a partnership approach which can deliver a high quality of works within a safe environment for SSE”.

SIMMONS EDECO recognised the need to be responsive to operators’ requirements in the current market and to offer full wellhead and valve maintenance services, in addition to wellhead control panel and other critical integrity services for which SMS is a recognised industry leader.

“Having worked closely with SSE Hornsea, it became increasingly clear that they, like many other operators, were keen to optimise how they manage their asset integrity and use a single contractor to plan and carry out all wellhead and ancillary maintenance at their gas storage facilities,” says Gavin Sherwood, Business Development Manager for SIMMONS EDECO. “We went through a robust due-diligence process to find a partner such as SMS which has allowed us to provide such a diverse and comprehensive range of asset integrity services to SSE. This really is a ground-breaking alliance. We believe it was critical in their decision to award SIMMONS EDECO this prestigious contract, which effectively doubles our work scope and the number of sites that we maintain for them. The entire SIMMONS EDECO team are looking forward to working alongside SMS under the new alliance, and to working in partnership with SSE to support their gas storage facilities so that they operate safely and reliably.”

“We are delighted to be chosen by SIMMONS EDECO to form part of this important strategic alliance,” says Dave Howlett, Managing Director of SMS. “The alliance will allow SMS and SIMMONS EDECO to collaborate in order to provide the right level of expertise and wellhead maintenance support to SSE.”

SIMMONS EDECO is supporting the three-year contract, which features two one-year extension options to renew, from its European base of operations in Great Yarmouth, England.